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New Zealand and Australian net usage analysised by HitWise

By Andrew Redfern @ 20th March 2008 10:09 am

Sandra Hanchard over at Hitwise Asia Pacific has been working on some data outlining antipodean search trends compared to US usage. Whilst the typical “sport loving Kiwi/Aussie” stereotypes do hold (2.29% & 2.68% as oposed to 1.91% in the US) the most significant deviations from the North American data was in shopping 9.7 in the US compared to 7.18 & 5.73 and news a huge 3% higher at 6.7 & 6.12 compared to 3.9 on the other side of the Pacific.

Hitwise’s findings are as follows :

* News & Media – accounted for 6.7% share of visits the week ending 15 March 2008. Online News & Media consumption was high compared to the Australian and US markets, which accounted for 6.12% and 3.9% market share respectively. The New Zealand Herald was the top news player with 12.4% share of visits, followed by Fairfax’s Stuff, with 10.06% share of visits for the week ending 15 March 2008.

* Portal Frontpages – attracted more visits in the New Zealand market with 5.78% share of Internet visits, than in Australia and US, with market shares of 4.43% and 5.55% respectively. The leading Portal Frontpage was MSN New Zealand accounting for 38.31% share of visits, followed by Yahoo!xtra with 15.98% for the week ending 15 March 2008.

* Travel – was a leading industry in the New Zealand market, accounting for 2.67% share of visits, compared to 2.5% in Australia and 2.19% in the US. New Zealand Travel visits for the week ending 15 March 2008 were also higher than the peak online travel season in the US market in 2007, which recorded 2.2% share, week ending 14 July 2007. Leading travel players were Air New Zealand (17.65% share), Wises Maps (3.83%) and Google Maps New Zealand (2.59%) for the week ending 15 March 2008.

* Shopping & Classifieds – accounted for 7.18% market share of visits the week ending 15 March 2008, significantly less than the US market with 9.7%, but ahead of the Australian market with 5.73%. US benchmarks indicate that there is potential for improved performance by vendors in the retail sector to increase online engagement. This is further highlighted by the fact that 28.3% of New Zealand visits to Shopping & Classifieds websites were directed to overseas websites suggesting local inventory opportunities. TradeMe was the leading website in the Shopping & Classifieds industry with a massive 48.4% share for the week ending 15 March 2008.

Check out the full article here.

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